Everything you need to talk about Tokken.

Media Coverage

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Rob Marvin | PC Magazine

"Tokken was born as a way for banks to deal with high-risk accounts. One of the federal government requirements that precludes banks from operating in the cannabis space is the ability to record and ensure complete data integrity."

Madison Margolin | VICE

"Zarrad is the founder of Tokken, a Colorado-based company that provides an online banking experience for cannabis companies using an indelible blockchain ledger ensuring data integrity and proprietary compliance."

Bill Hardekopf | Forbes

"The start-up, Tokken is one of several recently created companies looking to solve one of the most vexing problems facing marijuana businesses in Colorado and several other states: the endless flow of dirty, dangerous, hard-to-track cash."

Justin O'Connell | VICE

Jonathan Chester | Forbes

Lamine Zarrad, CEO: "At Tokken, all of our transactions are notarized on the blockchain. This creates an immutable ledger of every transaction that has ever happened. Because of this, the costs of the audits and reviews as they pertain to Marijuana dispensaries are drastically reduced. This means that we can bank these companies in an economic and efficient manner and the dispensaries no longer need to operate in cash only environments."

Jess Ryan | Built In Colorado

"Tokken was born from the inefficiencies I noticed,” said Zarrad. “As everything else around banks is evolving, banks are unable to keep up effectively. They’re unable to to address needs as efficiently as they should."

Chuck Ludley | Green Rush Daily

The Cannabist

"What Tokken does is something unique… What Tokken does is capitalizes on this decentralization trend in banking. We look at cutting-edge technologies which allow us to streamline compliance practices and therefore really tackle regulation head-on."

Benzinga

ABC 2 News

"Lamine Zarrad is a former bank regulator and now the CEO of Tokken, a startup that's hoping to give cannabis companies a way to track their transactions as closely as they track their plants, by recording those transactions using blockchain technology."

Business Den

"Zarrad’s solution is to take cash out of the equation. Users download the Tokken app for free on Apple or Google Play and link their app to their phone number as well as bank or credit card accounts."

Nathaniel Popper | The Boston Globe

"Tokken will use the electronic money transfer system in the United States known as the Automated Clearinghouse, or ACH, to move money from the bank account of a customer to Tokken’s bank account. Tokken will then keep subaccounts for each dispensary — making it unnecessary for the banks to deal directly with dispensaries."

Joel Warner | International Business Times

Alan Pyke | ThinkProgress

"Tokken will use the electronic money transfer system in the United States known as the Automated Clearinghouse, or ACH, to move money from the bank account of a customer to Tokken’s bank account. Tokken will then keep subaccounts for each dispensary — making it unnecessary for the banks to deal directly with dispensaries."

New Cannabis Ventures

"In contrast to its rivals, which use hardware and software solutions, Tokken is working on an electronic payment system that bypasses traditional credit or debit networks relying upon the blockchain."

Julia Wright | Civilized

Justin O'Connell | Merry Jane

"Tokken, a “blockchain agnostic” startup whose executives have decades of experience working in government, uses cutting edge technologies to usher in an era of distributed and digital payments in the cannabis industry."

“Lamine Zarrad, an individual with experience in the field as a federal bank regulator, wants to offer marijuana dispensaries in the U.S. services, denied them by many banks, through software that would help monitor and post transactions.”

“There is nothing dangerous in the cooperation of banks and marijuana businesses, if the transactions are carefully monitored. Generally, banks do not provide sufficient transparency in the transaction and therefore cannot protect against money laundering.”

“Zarrad’s new enterprise, called Tokken, is one of the start-up companies that tries to resolve one of the most annoying problems that face marijuana businesses in Colorado and other States: the endless flow of dirty cash, dangerous and difficult to trace.”

“So of course, some have already imagined how to bypass the banks. Start-ups have taken the niche to imagine a new circuit of money from the consumer through the distributor who would ultimately land at the bank.”